CrossFire vs SLi

Y

yoongkc

New Member
Hey guys,

Comparing the 2 technology, which of them should perform better?

I've also checked the prices of relevant graphic cards and I realised that given a lower price, I can get CrossFire at the same memory or even higher as compared to SLi.

Not sure if there are any hidden disadvantages that makes CrossFire more price efficient than SLi, so hope to check out over here.

Thanks!
 
It seems from new benchmarks, that crossfire pulls ahead. Even if a single card from nVidia is better, usually two of ATI's offerings in crossfire will outperform it in SLI.
 
So that means buying 2 ATI cards running CrossFire is better than running 2 nVidia cards running in SLi?
 
Yes, Case in point the 8800gt's and 3870's. The 8800gt is 10-15% better in a single card configuration, depending on the game and settings, but add another in parellel and the 3870's pull ahead. Thus you can say that crossfire/crossfire drivers are 15-20% better/more efficient than SLI. :D

Obviously there's a point when this ceases to be the case, when the cards in question have a larger than 20% ( as a guess) difference in performance, favoring Nvidia.
 
Yeah, it seems crossfire scales better. On top of that, you'll get a better motherboard over an nvidia chipset.

The motherboard alone is one of the reasons i went crossfire.
 
hermeslyre said:
Obviously there's a point when this ceases to be the case, when the cards in question have a larger than 20% ( as a guess) difference in performance, favoring Nvidia.
Click to expand...

Don't really understand this point. Care to explain more in details?

Anyway a point to check, if using CrossFire improved the performance by 15 to 20%, does it mean that the performance only improves by 5% over a single nVidia graphic card?

Currently, I'm getting RamPage Formula for my mainboard and getting XFX 9800GTX 512MB for graphic card. However, the board supports CrossFire instead of SLi, so thinking of getting a CrossFire enabled card. So not sure if it's a better decision.

Any advices?
 
Get the rampage formula, and get maybe a cheap video card to last you untill the 4xxx series is released. (within the next month maybe?)

And go with the 4870 or 4870X2
 
yoongkc said:
Don't really understand this point. Care to explain more in details?
Click to expand...

He means when the cards arent comparable in single configuration, they logically wont be comparable in SLi/Crossfire. Its just sort of a disclaimer

You cant compare a $80 ATI in CrossFire with a $200 nVidia Card in SLi. Clearly the nVidia would be better but if the cards are comparable in single configuration, then Crossfire will pull ahead of SLi

But this doesnt matter to you because your question was simply which performs better and the answer is Crossfire.
 
Ok thanks.

Correct me if I am wrong:
-a single GF graphic performs better than a single ATI graphic card
-when connecting in SLi/crossfire, 2 cards with crossfire will perform better

Hope I get it right.
 
Ok, take a HD3870 and 8800GT for example.

Single vs. single: the 8800GT will have a lead.

Dual vs. dual: Crossfire HD3870's will have the lead.

Everything i have compared, the lead in crossfire is nothing to sneeze at.
 
Thanks a lot man. It's really helpful.

Anyway, I realised my retail shops here doesn't offer a lot brands with crossfire cards. Mainly only Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor. (XFX does not produce crossfire card right?) Based on these brands, any recommendations?

I've taken into fancy for Asus EAH3870 X2 1GB DDR3. It looks nice and seems to perform well under some reviews. Btw what's the difference between Asus EAH3870 vs Asus EAH3870 X2?
 
Yeah, the 3870X2 is great, slightly under 3870 crossfire, but basically same performance.

The thing with 3870's and brands, are the quality of the stock PCB and heatsink. Diamond, and GeCube have the best now.

But that Asus 3870X2 would be fine. Are there no online stores for you, your not in the US i assume?
 
ThatGuy16 said:
Yeah, the 3870X2 is great, slightly under 3870 crossfire, but basically same performance.

But that Asus 3870X2 would be fine. Are there no online stores for you, your not in the US i assume?
Click to expand...

What you mean by slight under 3870 crossfire?

There are online store, but then they will be warranty issues when I faced with problems. I'm from Singapore.

Oh, btw I'm intending to get only a single graphic card at the moment and not sure if I will run on 2 cards, so should I stick with XFX 9800GTX 512MB or go for Asus 3870X2?
 
What motherboard do you have, or getting?

For single card, right now the 3870X2 is by far the best price/performance you can get.

Two 3870's will be a bit faster than a 3870X2 due to the fact of each GPU having its own dedicated PCIe x16 slot, and GDDR4 memory. But theres not enough difference to justify. Very, very close.
 
I intend to get Asus RamPage formula. That's why checking on CrossFire cards. Initially intended to get Asus Striker II formula, but a lot of people encouraged me to go for RamPage formula coz it uses Intel chipset.

Hm, is the 3870 X2 1GB better than GF 9800GTX or even GF 9800GX2? Considering I will only be running with 1 graphic card.
 
Its better than a 9800GTX, and very close to a 9800GX2 (i know the 3870X2 is better in benchmarks, I'm not sure about in games though)
 
If it's performance is very close to GF 9800GX2, wouldn't it make 3870X2 very price attractive? The difference at my retail shops is about S$300 plus.

Glad that I checked on ATI GPU, if not I might be wasting a lot of money on GF cards that doesn't support CrossFire. Ha!
 
It turns out that 2 Asus 3870 512MB DDR4 is slightly cheaper than 1 Asus 3870X2 1GB. Given this situation, which configuration should I take for the best offer in performance?
 
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